eNewsletter – June, 2016

John Balcom: The TPC Connection Is Evolving

It’s been a long time since we shipped a program CD with a TPC Connection renewal. Most folks just download the updates from our web site or use the automatic update feature that’s built into TPC.

We have also been moving to online learning guides. You can still install them along with the program, but you don’t need to. By default, they open up online. This allows us to keep them up to date with all the agile release changes and add new ones like the Import / Export Learning Guide we just added. We’ve heard some good feedback from our users on this.

We have been contacting our TPC Connection members mid-year just to see how they are doing. So if your TPC Connection renews in let’s say March, we’ll contact you in September. We want to make sure TPC is working well for you and just find out how you are doing. Everyone we’ve talked with so far has really appreciated the effort.

With all these changes over time, here is how the connection will formally take effect August 2016.

There will be no Shipping and Handling fees for TPCC renewals.

Learning Guides will not automatically be included with TPCC renewals since they are no longer tied to a specific TPC version. They can be purchased separately.

TPC will contact you mid-year just to see how you are doing.

The early renewal discount will be 10% of the new TPCC price.

The free gift is still free ONLY when you renew on time – you snooze you lose.

The TPC Connection will continue to be the only way to get the Agile Releases, like TPC Desktop 2016 R1 with best fit lines and curves.

To all of you who are on the TPC Connection – thank you for staying connected with TPC.

John Balcom, President, MSE, PLS, GISP

Mark Lull: I Waited and Waited but now, I’m All In!

I am frequently asked by users whether they should update from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Up until now, I have always said, “It’s up to you.” Everything changed in the last few weeks. Now, my answer is, “Absolutely! I would definitely update to Windows 10 if I were you!”

I have been on Windows 10 since the day it released. So why has my opinion changed this week?

Well, before now, I had seen a couple of things I really liked (like the new way copying and pasting files works when you have files with the same names) but I hadn’t really seen anything that pushed me over the edge to say that Windows 10 is definitely better. I hadn’t seen any problems caused by Windows 10 but I had seen a problems caused by AVG and Avast in Windows 10 so I was ambivalent.

Oliver has been working on getting our new office server set up. As he was working on getting the backups working, he stumbled into “shadow copies” of files. (Check out his article below.) Our server isn’t Windows 10 because it is running a server OS but it got me thinking that maybe Windows 10 did the same thing. I went into both of my Windows 10 computers and started looking. Lo and behold, Windows 10 is creating “shadow copies” also! This is like an automatic backup or mirror of my files without me doing anything! I really like that!

So that is why I am now All In on Windows 10! I strongly recommend that you update to Windows 10 before the free updates go away at the end of July!

Mark Lull, Technical Support

Oliver Bochsler: Window’s Shadow Copies

We have always advocated safe computing, backups, virus scanners, firewalls and whatever else helps keep your computing experience fun and safe. We give you tools that let your time using Traverse PC be safe and fun. For example The Multiple Backups tool gives you the ability to save up to 10 versions of your survey. It turns out that Windows has a feature like this but for your system files! Let us talk about it…

What are Shadow copies? Shadow Copies allow a file to have older versions of itself saved in case of a situation where a previous version of the file needs to be recovered. The benefit here is that Windows takes care of the details! The only thing you need to do is right-click a file you want to recover, click Properties, and go to the Previous Versions tab. File versions and their corresponding save date will be listed.

How do you know if Shadow Copies are working? Windows has some settings allowing you to alter how and when shadow copies work. It depends on the version of Windows you have but I will give the basic location for Shadow Copy settings. Open the Windows Control Panel, go to the File History section to find Shadow Copy settings and Advanced settings. The Settings allow you to change how often copies are saved and how long to keep the saved copies.

In addition to the Multiple Backups that Traverse PC provides, windows will end up saving Shadow copies of the TRV files (your survey files) in your survey folder. So if TPC’s Multiple Backup feature doesn’t have the version of your survey you’re trying to recover, you can always look at the file’s Shadow Copies. We want you to know that you always have options when it comes to recovering files.

Oliver Bochsler, Software Development

Eric Tanikawa: Grilled BBQ Teriyaki Chicken Thighs

I polled our office on Chicken preference of White vs Dark meat. It was a split decision! So, I decided that Dark meat wins! This BBQ chicken recipe is juicy, flavorful and easy to do!

Whisk together the soy sauce, water, rice vinegar, pineapple juice, and corn starch in a medium saucepan. Then whisk in honey to dissolve then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 15 minutes. Keep about 1/2 cup warm for serving and set aside the rest for glazing.

Chicken:

8 chicken thighs (skin on)

Canola oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fire-up the charcoal and place it on one side of the grill! In a bowl, drizzle canola oil, then salt & pepper the thighs.

For a “Sear” place the chicken directly over the coals, and cook on both sides for about 3 to 4 minutes. It will get a little charred!
Then, place the chicken on the other side of the grill (indirect cooking method), brush-on your chicken the teriyaki glaze, cover the grill for 35 mins, and heat the inside of the grill around 375 degrees. Then turn the chicken over to brush-on more teriyaki glaze and cook for another 15mins, and then take a temperature probe for reading of 165 degrees for the thighs to be done!

Enjoying eating the best grilled barbeque teriyaki chicken thighs ever! And dark meat is the way to go!

Life with Traverse PC

Traverse PC has provided land surveying software since 1987. We offer point-based software for managing your land survey data and Quick View™ technology for your drawings.

We're not CAD! And don't want to be! Because CAD simply can't do land surveying like Traverse PC does. It just works Better than CAD and is always CAD friendly!

You'll also find all the standards like COGO, traverse closure and adjustments, coordinate transformations, DTM, least squares, profiles and more. Plus,the necessities like GIS / DWG / DXF / DGN / PDF / Data Collector interfaces so you can get your data from anywhere and share it with anyone! Now with Geodetics and Cadastral tools with PLSS built in.